Former South African cricketer AB de Villiers analyzed the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) team for the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023. He praised their bowling attack but feels they do not have a batting line-up to win their third IPL title.
Kolkata Knight Riders made headlines recently when they spent Rs 24.75 crore to buy Mitchell Starc in the IPL. They spent more than half of their purse to acquire the services of the Australian pacer so that they could strengthen their bowling line-up for the next edition of the league.
The presence of Mitchell Starc will certainly strengthen their bowling line-up. But one of the things that will be worrying is his batting lineup. They brought Manish Pandey, Sherfane Rutherford and wicketkeeper-batsman KS Bharat to the auction, but these players are not the kind of match-winners they would have wanted.
KKR has players like captain Shreyas Iyer, Jason Roy, Venkatesh Iyer, Rinku Singh, Andre Russell, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Nitish Rana and others. They would expect these batsmen to give their best and help the team win the third title. The franchise, in particular, since the last few seasons has been below average.
AB de Villiers admitted that KKR has good batsmen in their ranks but it is not an IPL-winning batting line-up. He said his top four will not be among the top four batting line-ups in this year’s IPL. In a video posted on his YouTube channel, he explained:
“I think their bowling attack is fantastic. The problem is in the batting department. They don’t have bad batsmen, but I don’t think it’s an IPL-winning batting line-up. Shreyas Iyer is a wonderful batsman. I am delighted with the order there. Rinku Singh is a good finisher.
“The batting line-up doesn’t look bad, but I don’t think it is one of the top four batting line-ups in this year’s IPL. “That’s what I think KKR is missing in this year’s IPL.”
IPL 2024: CSK is the street-smart team of the IPL – AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers, apart from Kolkata Knight Riders, also analyzed the Chennai Super Kings team. The MS Dhoni-led team quietly picked up quite a few impact players in the auction. They brought in people like Daryl Mitchell, Rachin Ravindra, Shardul Thakur and others.
AB de Villiers hailed Chennai Super Kings as the smart team of the IPL. He noted that Daryl Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra were much needed for the team in the tournament. He also added that Shardul Thakur’s purchase was one of the biggest steals of the tournament. He explained:
“CSK is the smart team of the IPL and has been since forever. I think Daryl Mitchell was very necessary and Rachin Ravindra in that middle order. Both New Zealanders have had very good World Cups, scoring hundreds. Shardul Thakur is a fantastic cricketer in all formats. One of the biggest steals in this year’s IPL.”
Chennai Super Kings signed Daryl Mitchell for INR 14 crores. He, along with Rachin Ravindra, will be crucial for the team in the tournament. Both the batsmen were in good form during the recently concluded ICC World Cup 2023 and helped the team reach the semi-finals.